According to a report released last month by the Small Business Administration, existing total regulatory costs already amount to about $1.75 trillion annually. This “hidden tax” on the economy is nearly twice as large as the sum of all individual income taxes collected last year. Adding to this burden, federal agencies promulgated 43 new rules during the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010. The total cost of these rules, each one individually calculated by the Obama administration itself, was $28 billion. Only two of these new rules reduced measured regulatory costs, and then by only $1.5 billion. On net, the Obama administration inflicted $26.5 billion in new regulatory costs on the economy last year. The biggest costs last year all came from the EPA including:

As high as this $26.5 billion total is, as the above boiler example shows, the actual costs of all these new regulations is almost certainly much higher. First, the cost of non-economically significant rules—rules deemed not likely to have an annual impact of $100 million or more—is not calculated. Second, no costs were given for 12 of the rules that were deemed economically significant. But most importantly, the costs that were given are likely minimized because the regulators are allowed to generate the cost of their own regulations. A 2005 Office of Management and Budget Report to Congress found that regulators underestimated the costs of their rules 34% of the time.

Fired NPR analyst Juan Williams told the Diane Rehm show yesterday that NPR was biased toward liberals and intolerant of a diversity of opinions and that “people at NPR have to be held accountable for their words and actions.”

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It is very disturbing that Obama just keeps bypassing Congress with his mandates and destructive plans for America via his agencies and czars. He has total disregard for the Constitution that he swore to uphold at inauguration. He should be impeached and swiftly. Then prosecute him for abuse of power and other high crimes and misdemeanors.

The obvious is that the bigger the Government that Obama can create, new laws and restrictions require more enforcers and administration personnel, the more votes he will acquire – one will be either working for the Government, or, in his world, against it…

Eliminating the EPA should be a step taken by the conservatives elected this time and next time. That unit of the massive federal bureaucracy does little for the environment, but major damage to the economy.

Why didn't voters believe obama when he said he would fundamentaly change the United States? He is fullfilling a campaign promise. If the dems remain in control of congress this country will be changed beyond recognition.

Hopefully with all the education and research the Heritage provides to us will be passed along thru any means to get the word out. We are really on the edge here with the obama agenda GET OUT AND VOTE.

This is one program the EPA that needs it's power curbed. They could cut this program out altogether. It's useless and too political. They should be controlled by the people not have unlimited power to do whatever they want. In other words any program or restrictions they want to impose on Americans should be approved by Congress. Like this if We The People don't like what Congress is doing, we can vote them out of office just like we are going to don on 11-2-10.

ACSI is attempting to find out what effect these new EPA regs may have on religious schools, charter schools and churches in old buildings. If they are so-regulated this could KILL many small entities! Dr. John Holmes, ACSI

Inefficiency in residential heating and lighting is in the form of heat, which for northern climate homes, is necessary 9 months of the year. Add the cost of cleaning up the added poisons of mercury, phosphors, printed circuit boards, solder, ceramic, plastics, and copper for CFL and LED devices and the costs are significant. As of January 1, 2011, new regulations on CO2 emissions begin, For many multinational companies this will mean moving out of the US to Mexico or Canada. For others it will mean slow painful death at the hands of "oh-so-caring" regulators.. Technically speaking, after January 1, it will be illegal to breathe or shake your soda pop (you evil CO2 person you). This sounds funny unless you are a dairy farm or chicken production facility, why people are exempted is a mystery, maybe 2012..

Talk about a department gone wild. I think the Republicans are going to have a plate full after next week and there are so many important things that have to be addressed, like; healthcare, the budget, the deficeit, the spending, unemployment, housing, and the economy in general. I hope they have enough steam to defund the EPA, the Department of Education and some of the other liberal laced organizations that do more harm to America than good. I think that unless we are smart enough to give them control of everything and hold them accountable we are going to be stuck in the sand and won't be able to move forward. The Democrats have created a big mess and unless we the people start to fix it in November, it's not going to be fixed.

The critical questions all of us have to ask ourselves: "How are we going to turn this battleship around? Who is going to lead the dismantling of the existing bureaucratic nightmare? Do the Republicans who may be elected next week understand that they are getting into office to change this country for the better and begin to minimize federal intrusion in our daily lives? Do they understand that it is not just the repeal of Obamacare that they are being elected for? Have those who may be elected to office next week read the Constitution? Do they understand it and how it applies to what exists today? And do they know that a pragmatic vision for the future must be dredged up from the floors of Congress based upon the principles of that document ?" We have a LOT of work to do, because no one has really been paying attention to what goes on in Washington. And remember, we need to vote in term limits.

The EPA is the undoing of our country as we know it. While you have written today about their power it gets worse. Although Cap & Trade is supposedly dead they still still pursuing a carbon agenda. They are going after fossil fuels from another direction . Coal, which fires the majority of our economy will be forced into new rules covering everything from more mercury and sulphur, ash and even water used to cool equipment, which will degrade the generating capacity of our electrical grid. The end result will be shutting down a large percentage of mines, brownouts and huge increases in electric rates.

If the EPA & the WH has it's way we will rapidly become the third world country they hope for.

Our only hope now is a change of congressional power in hopes that a new majority will have the interest of the country as a first priority rather than special interests which prevail now.

It looks like obama can not out right give away this country, but will destroy it from within with all his BS regulations. Small business and big business have been regulated and taxed to death now, he has no incentive to bring any of this to a halt. The Republicans had better wake up and do something about this mess after the election. I do believe it is past time for term limits on all in Washington, they stay way to long and then believe they exist only for themselves, not for the people.

So what is being done about this? The EPA has been around a very long time and allowed to throw its weight around unimpeded by any consideration of the economic impacts that result from their rulings and regulations.

By their reckoning Humans are not a part of nature; they are the destroyers of nature; case in point? In California, declaring the Delta Smelt, a small fish, an endangered species results in cutting off the water supply to one of Americas most productive farm lands and the effect on California and the nations economy and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of farm workers is not worthy of consideration. The fish deserves the full protection of the Federal Government; the people can go pound salt.

God Help Us!!! The Fed is printing billions of more money. If we can't reverse this current course our Republic is doomed. We must take back our country. We have people to do the job we need to get them elected.

Although this video was made in 2004, I think that everyone would benefit from looking at it. It might help us to better understand what is going on right now. I was so startled when I watched the vidoes and read the information that my opinion on some people changed. I now wonder how much of what is going on in this country is connected with this secret societ- The Skull and Bones Society. The man who is being interviewed has researched this society and its active members and explains their tactice of gaining power through creating and managing conflict. It may now explain why we see such horrendous things happening under Obama. Sue

Not mentioned are the new EPA regulations on renovations of homes built prior to 1978 containing lead based paint. These regulations were enacted with penalties for noncompliance to be levied even though there was inadequate communication of the new regulations to the industry and inadequate training available to become compliant with the regulations.

Read a 187-page 1994 book called "The Death of Common Sense," by Philip K. Howard. It reviews how America is drowning in law, legality, bureaucratic process and how we live in terror of the law, in awe of procedure and how we are at war with one another as a result. Did you know that even window cleaner used in a business requires MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets) sheets to be issued by the seller and filed away by the business, and that virtually no one even reads the forms, even though they must be kept readily available at the business location just in case OSHA happens to make a surprise call and perhaps issue a citation for even an errant spider web on the ceiling.

The book was written 16 years ago, and the regulatory nightmare is naturally even worse now. Naturally, the cost of 100% compliance (which is usuallly impossible) is passed on to us, the consumers. Read the book; it will blow you away.

Having had my own dental practice for 35 years, I used a high-quality dental prosthetics lab that operated out of Santa Rosa, California several years ago. The owner wanted to renovate the older two-story building. The top floor was easily accessed by a staircase. Regulations required that any renovation of these types of buildings used for business purposes included the placement of an elevator. In this case, customers of the lab were either dentists or dental assistants, neither of whom would have need to use an elevator.

The building owner told me that he knew of no dental offices who employed any wheelchair-bound employees and, as such, he could see no reason to spend tens of thousands of dollars to build an elevator that would never be used. No matter, said the regulatory boys: no elevator=no renovation. The law applied equally to every business owner requiring renovation permits, and that no deviations were permitted, nor were variances available. As a result, the lab moved to a one-story building twenty miles away (at considerable cost, BTW). He ultimately had to raise his fees to his dentist clients, and as a result, fees by those dentists were ultimately passed down to patients.

The end result was that the lab's dentist clients to require a 40-mile round trip each time a case had to be dropped off, then another 40-mile trip to have the case picked up, and extra time was required for the dental assistant to make the drive, requiring me to purchase extra insurance on the assistant in case she had an accident. I ultimately just spent my own time making the weekly trek.

Additionally, I remember that there was a new—at the time—ADA requirement that new dental offices or offices to be remodeled had to include a 3 or 4-foot aisle between the dental chair and any structures or obstructions on either side of the chair to provide room for wheelchair dental assistants. Naturally, as far as I know at this time, there are no wheelchair-bound dental assistants. Part of the job demands that they be able to take radiographs and complete other tasks that require standing or activities that would prevent use of a wheelchair. Naturally, the increased space requirements have made costs escalate if a dentist wants to renovate his office or if he wants to build a new office. Much space is wasted, not only for the dental health crew, but for wheelchair patients as well. In 35 years, we had only one wheelchair patient. He was a Denti-cal patient who always came with a

helper to get him into our non-compliant bathroom and over our non-compliant curb in the parking lot. Of course, no helper was really required because the office staff could and would have helped the guy at any time. No matter. The ADA regulations require that any new medical-complex construction or individual offices that have been sold include wheelchair ramps with steel bannisters (approved by ADA, of course) be installed.

The buyer of my office had to spend thousands of dollars to make the ADA-mandated changes, including a wheelchair ramp and adjacent bannister. He also had to include numerous changes within the office to satisfy the ADA, even though those changes would virtually never be used by either patients or employees. After we left, the medical plaza also had to make changes to the lighting of the parking lot and to the sidewalk curbs (to establish wheelchair ramps). The biggest problem in the minds of the individual owners within the medical complex was not primarily with the changes that required more immediate ADA compliance, but with the history of the ADA's constant changing their regulatory mandates. In other words, if changes are made today, who is to say that the ADA will be finally satisfied and not require that changes just made will be nullified in the future, requiring tearing down and rebuilding in compliance with those new mandates. The entire system of trying to comply with codes designed with such rigidity is nothing short of madness.

I would have gladly paid to just hire a weight-lifter to pick up wheelchair patients and transport them right into the dental chair, but of course, this solution is too logical….at least for the ADA.

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